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A jailed member of Russian feminist punk band Pussy Riot might have immigrated to Canada prior to the stunt that landed her behind bars.

The Canadian permanent resident card for Pussy Riot member Nadezda Tolokonnikova was originally shown during an interview on Russia's state-run television channel. (YOUTUBE)

By Joanna SmithOttawa Bureau

Fri., Aug. 17, 2012

OTTAWA—A jailed member of Russian feminist punk band Pussy Riot might have immigrated to Canada prior to the political stunt involving masks and a cathedral that landed her behind bars.

Nadezdha Tolokonnikova, 23, is the best known face of Pussy Riot, a punk group whose members have been in jail since February, when they stormed a cathedral in Moscow wearing summer dresses, tights and colourful balaclavas, shouting a prayer to the Virgin Mary to deliver Russia from Vladimir Putin, who was set to win a third term as president the following month.

An excerpt from a Russian state television newscast posted to YouTube suggests Tolokonnikova has a tie to Canada that is strong enough for her to have received a permanent resident card as recently as last year — something that only someone who is physically present in Canada and has met immigration requirements can obtain.

“I’ve been to Canada and I have the right to visit it but I didn’t get a residency permit,” Tolokonnikova told Russian state television journalist Arkady Mamontov during the interview that aired in April.

Tolokonnikova said she went to Canada on a visa.

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“I don’t have a residency there and am not yet planning to leave Russia. I’ll wait and continue fighting for now,” Tolokonnikova says in the interview, according to a translation provided to the Star.

A close-up of the permanent resident card shows it expires on April 5, 2016, which suggests that Tolokonnikova either received or renewed the card in 2011, because they are valid for five years.

Canadian government sources said the card depicted in the shot appears to be a real one.

Tolokonnikova’s husband, Pyotr Verzilov, told the Washington Post in July that he got a Canadian passport after attending junior high school in Toronto.

Pictures of his Canadian passport have been held up on Russian TV in an attempt to show that Verzilov, a street performer and activist, is trying to destroy Russia, the Post reported.

Citizenship and Immigration Canada spokeswoman Nancy Caron said she could not speak specifically about the case of Tolokonnikova, but noted that permanent resident cards are not handed out to people visiting the country on a visa.

The Canadian government is not required to provide consular services to its permanent residents — a right reserved for citizens — but New Democrat MP and foreign affairs critic Paul Dewar said it would be good for the Conservative government to be involved in “some quiet diplomacy” on humanitarian grounds.

“I’m not sure if a minister from Canada speaks out aggressively, it’s going to help things, but I think we absolutely should be speaking out. It’s a matter of how we do it, not if we do it,” Dewar said Thursday.

The department of Foreign Affairs did not answer a question about whether they had intervened and provided no other comment on this case.

Tolokonnikova and fellow Pussy Riot members Maria Alekhina and Yekaterina Samutsevich are expected to receive their verdicts Friday on charges of hooliganism and religious hatred, which carries a sentence of seven years’ imprisonment.

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